Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-13
TRAVELLING MUNcHAUsENs.
Dru m mcrs Who Could Outspeed
Colonel Sellers In the Field Of
Fiction

| Colonel sellers In the Field ef
Fiction.
ATLANTA, Ca, Constitution.)
Six men sat in the smoking car of tht
train going to Barnesville the other day
They were all drummers. One wal
from Macon, one from Atlanta, one
from Cincinnati, one from st. Louis and
one from Chicago. Like most men o.
their class they were slightly inclined tt
be talkative. They spent fifteen minutes
abusing the railroad for the unavoidable
accident that had delayed them, and
then began to talk of other matters.
Gentleman" said the Macon drum
mer, opening his grip and taking out 9
piece Of coal, "here is curiosity. Thil
piece of coal was given to me by Q
friend who owns a mine near Birming
ham in the great State Of Alabama
You will observe that on one side of il
is the perfect impression of frog. This
piece of coal was found exactly 1919 feet
below the surface of the earth. The
frog, apparently dead, was firmly i'm.
bedded in it. When both coal and frog
were brought to the surface, the latter
suddenly swelled up, wiggled its legs,
and then tore itself from the coal and
jumped twenty feet away into pool Of
water"
"That reminds me-" said one of the
Atlanta drummers, ''of o curious thing
that happened in Atlanta. The Kim.
ball House-the old one, mean-was
built over q spring. OF course, nothing
could either get in or out of the spring
after that tremendous pile Of brick was
reared upon it. The Kimball House,
you'll remember, was burned in 1863.
Two days after the fire some firemen
succeeded in making their way to the
springs, and, bless me, if they didn't
find five big frogs swimming around as
merrily as if they'd been in ice.water.
Just think of it, they were caught in the
spring when the Kimball House was
built, and of course they were there
when the fire occurred"
"Quite curious" said the other At
lanta drummer, ''but perhaps you didn't
know that there were originally six big
frogs in the spring. The sixth was
found tour days ago after the fire, squat-
ting on top of the big chimney, taking a
view of the Improvements that had been
made in Atlanta since the Kimball
House was built.
"Gsntlemen." raid the Cincinnati
drummer, "your stories are doubtless
quite as true as they are interesting.
Permit me to relate one in which frogs
figure to some extent. Near Cincinnati
there is large pond. 1t is always full
of frogs, and the biggest frogs known to
natural history. The fact is, those
frogs are as big as hogs. A leading
pork.packer has his slaughter pen near
the pond. While looking at the mon
ster frogs one day he was seized with a
happy idea. He determined to derive a
revenue from them. He had a thousand
of them caught, cured the thighs of
their hind legs, packed them and
marked the casks HAMS Then he put
them on the market. They sold like
hot cakes, nobody being able to distin.
guish them from genuine hams. Since
then that pork. packer has made o cool
million of dollars cut of frogs in this
pond, and if nobody discovers his Sc.
cret, he will, in the course of a few
years, be richer than Jay Could"
The st. Louis drummer took out a
red morocco note book.
"What are you going to do!" asked
the Cincinnati drummer.
''Juss going to make note of that
story. The next time 1 deliver Sun.
day school address shall use it as a
touchingly beautiful illustration of the
way Cincinnati drummers tell the
truth."
The Cincinnati drummer expressed
his thanks.
''By the way" said the St. Louis
drummer, returning the notebook to his
pocket, II remember quite curious
story about frogs myself. A summer or
two ago, a handsome young lady from
Chicago spent month with my sister
on my fathers farm near st. Louis. One
night at lawn party, she lost one Of
her slippers. A few weeks after she re.
turned to Chicago, my little brother
Tom found the slipper on hebank of a
brook that Guns across the corner of the
lawn. He stopped to pick it up but
fouEd that he could not move it. He
called twodrish ditchers to assist him,
but although they tugged at the slipper
for half an hour, they could not move it
an inch. They went to the stables and
brought out six of my fathers finest
draughthorses. These they hitched to
the slipper, intending to have them draw
il away from the brook. They failed.
The slipper maintained its position as if
it weresfastened to the ground clinched
in the middle of the earth. They then
examined the slipperand weere amazed to
find itsfull of frogs. I willnot hazard a
statement as to the number of frogs that
had made their home in the slipper, but
telegrs phi dispatches from every point in
the radius of one hundred miles declared
that all the frogs had mysterious]y dis.
appeared from their accustomed haunts. +"
"a very curious story very prettily
told" said the Chicago drummer. .It
reminds me of an incident. witnessed
last summer. A handsome young lady
from st. Louis was visiting ray sister on
my fathers farm near Chicago. On the
farm there was large pond, called in
poetic language 'the watery home of the
merry frogs 1t was ton acres square
and,;t contained several billions of frogs.
l wac walking on the bank of the pond
with the handsome young lady from St.
Louie one day. feeling very cool and
comfortable in the shade cast by her
feet. In a moment of playful excite.
ment she accidentally dropped one of
her;feet into the water. Great spoons,
the result was amazing! Every drop of
water flew out of the pond and with it
all of the frogs. No trace of the water
was ever seen again. but the next day
telegraphic dispatches from all parts Of
the United States, Canads and Mexico
announced that it was raining frogs by
the bushel."
"Sir." exclaimed the st. Lonis drum.
mer, syou are IL"
'"Gentlemen," interrupted the con.
duetor. who had just entered the car,
'there must be no fighting in this car.
Sit down; the train is about to start F"
The Chicago drummer sat down, but
II